Key and lock brick.



S. S. SWIFT.

KEY AND LOCK BRICK.

APPLICATION FILED 001'. 6, 1909.

998,81 1,, Patented July 25, 1911.

Snwnfoz KEY AND LOCK BRICK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 25, 1911.

Application filed October 6, 1909. Serial No. 521,266.

To all whom it may concern:

Be 1t known that I, SAMUEL S. SWlF'l, a

' citizen of the United'States, residing at 5 is an end elevationVoodland, in the county of Clear-field and State of Pennsylvania, haveinvented a new and useful Key and. Lock Brick, of which the following isa specificatitm.

This invention relates to bricks for use in paving streets and walks,and in constructing arches of furnaces, kilns and the like. One of theobjects of the invention is to provide a brick which is so shaped as tofirmly interlock with adjoining bricks whereby longitudinal displacementof the various courses of brick is prevented, and it thus becomespossible to avoid the expense of providing a curb such as ordinarilyused along streets and highways.

Another object is to provide a brick which can be readily manufacturedand which can be'easily manipulated Without danger of reducing itsefiiciency as a result of chipping. A still further object is to providebricks which can be stored in. a compact space and Which, when properlynested, will not occupy any more room than ordinary bricks of the samebulk.

With these and other objects in View the invention consists of certainnovel details of construction and combinations of parts hereinafter morefully described and pointed out in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings the preferred forms of the invention havebeen shown.

In said drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of a portion of a-pavementformed of bricks constituting the present improvement. Fig. 2 isa'section on the line AB of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a perspective View of oneof said bricks. Fig. ,4 is a plan view of a portion of an archconstructed of the bricks. Fig. of the parts shown in Fig. 4.

Referring to the figures by characters of reference '1 designates thebody of the brick the same being wider at the top than at the bottom andthe sides thereof converging toward said bottom face, thus giving thebrick, in end'view, the appearance of a; keystone. The sides of thebrick, in addition to converging toward the narrow face of the brick,are extended toward each other along converging lines to pointsequidistant from the ends of the brick and which have been indicated at2, substantially V-shaped recesses being thus formed in the two sides ofthe brick. \Vhen the brick is-used for paving purposes, a rib 3 may beprovided upon each side thereof adjacent the ends of the brick, theseribs constituting spacing means.

In building a pavement of bricks such as herein described, one course islaid with the broad faces of the brick uppermost and the next course islaid with the narrow faces uppermost. the. bricks of this latter coursebeing arranged to lap the ends of the first laid bricks'so as to occupythe staggered relation disclosed in Fig. 1, the ends of the bricks ofone course lying in the angles in the sides of the bricks of theadjoining course. This arrangement is followed throughout the extent ofthe pavement and the ribs 3 constitute etlicient means for spacing thebricks apart sufficient distances to permit sand or other suitablefilling material to be lodged between the bricks. It will be seen thatalternate courses of bricks are supported by the remaining interposedcourses and a more solid pavement is thus obtained than where all of thecourses bear directly on the sand or other bed providcd for the bricks.

By extending the courses of brick from one side to the other of thestreet or pavement, it becomes unnecessary to utilize the curbs such asordinarilyemployed because the bricks will be held against longitudinaldisplacement by reason of their own peculiar contours.

I'Vhile the bricks herein described are par ticularly designed for usein constructing streets and walks, it is to be understood that they maybe also used in the construction of arches in furnaces, kilns, sewersand the like. When used for these purposes the same are made without theribs 3 and instead of arranging the courses with the broad and narrowfaces of the bricks alternately uppermost, all of the courses are disposed with the wide faces of the bricks outermost. In other respects theconstruction is the same as that heretofore described, it being obviousof course that with the narrow faces innermost an arch is thus obtainedas shown in Fig. 5. V

Inasmuch as all of the bricks are arranged with their broad endslocatedwithin the V-shaped recesses in the bricks of the adjoiningcourses, it will be apparent that, none of the bricks can be shiftedlongitudinally with relation to the adjoining bricks.

By referring particularly to Fig. 1 it Will be noted that the ribs oneach of the bricks project between the ribs on the next adjoiningbricks, there being spaces thus formed between the ribs on therespective bricks and by filling the spaces betweenthe ribs with dirt orany other suitable material, it Will be apparent that the bricks will belocked against longitudinal displacement relative to each other. This isan especially advantageous arrangement for holding in place the endbricks of the various courses becanse it eliminates the necessity0f-1.,lltlllZ- ing any abutinent therefor.

It is of course to be understood that val'lOllS changes inay be made 111the construc-' tion of tlie' brickwithout departing from' the spirit orsacrificing any of the advantages o fthe invention.

What is claimed is:

A structure consisting of parallel courses of sin ilar bricks, eachcourse consisting of bricks placed end to end, each brick havingv flatparallel ends perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the brick andhaving parallel flat upper and lower faces, each side of the brick beingmade up of fiat faces converging inwardly to a single line locatedmidway between the ends of the bricks, said bricks being key-stoneshaped in cross section, the bricksot' one course being invertedrelative to the bricks of the adjoining courses, there being ribsupon-the fiat fa'ces'ateaeh side of each brick, the ribs on each brickbeing disposed between the ribs on the adjoining bricks of the nextcourse, the spaces between SAMUEL s. SWIFT. I

, 'Witnesses:

N. G. STEWART C. GRAHAM.

